Category: Isabella’s Books

Historical facts, background information, and excerpts from Isabella’s books.

The Voices in Isabella’s Head

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There’s no question that Isabella Alden was a talented writer. The plots for her novels were inventive and realistic, and each of her characters were carefully drawn.

Her niece, author Grace Livingston Hill, wrote that when she was old enough to learn to read, she “devoured [Isabella’s] stories chapter by chapter.” And when Isabella wrote the final chapter to one of the novels she’d been writing, the family often crowded around her, knowing Isabella would read her work aloud. Grace said:

“We listened, breathless, as she read, and made her characters live before us. They were real people to us, as real as if they lived and breathed before us.”

Four young women sit in a Victorian era room with bookcases lining one wall. One woman reads a book with her back to the others. Another woman reads a book aoud to two others.

They were probably real people to Isabella, too. When she was interviewed in 1892 for a Philadelphia newspaper, she talked about her writing process. For many years she used a typewriter to write her stories (you can read more about that here), but by the time she was interviewed for the newspaper article, she was using dictation. It greatly increased the speed with which she wrote her books, and added an inadvertent element of entertainment to the task. Here’s how it was described in the article:

“The morning hours are devoted by Mrs. Alden to her literary work, and a person standing in the hall in front of the studio door is highly amused to hear the animated conversation with the varying tones indicative of stern displeasure, then of baby prattle, to be followed soon by the earnest and softened accents of the lover’s pleading; a monologue by Mrs. Alden as she personates her various characters. They are all seen in life, they must all appear in her books.”

A young woman sits in a room near a fireplace where a fire is burning. She wears an orange dress from about the year 1910 and holds a large sheet of paper she is reading.

Isabella’s characters seem alive and real to us because she wrote about the kind of average people we meet every day; and when her characters come to a crossroads in their lives and face tough decisions, we understand what they’re going through because we (or someone we know) has dealt with similar situations. Her characters cause those of us who read her books to search our own hearts and “see ourselves as God saw us.”

In a dimly lit room, a woman stands near a table with a lamp on it. She holds a piece of paper she is reading. On the table is a tea pot and two tea cups and saucers. Seated at the table is another young woman who is listening.

Grace wrote that Isabella’s characters “still live within our memories like people we have known intimately and dwelt among. Ester Ried and Julia Ried, the Four Girls at Chautauqua, Mrs. Solomon Smith—I almost expect to meet some of them in Heaven.”

Do you have a favorite character from Isabella’s books?

How to Have a Good Prayer Meeting

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Isabella often drew on her own life experiences when writing her stories and novels.

For example, Isabella’s husband G. R. “Ross” Alden was a seminary student when he and Isabella were courting. On the very day of their wedding, Isabella and Ross boarded a train to take them to a new town where Ross was assigned his first church as a minister. Isabella used the very same circumstance in her 1890 novel Aunt Hannah and Martha and John. In the story, newly married Martha also left her parents’ home immediately after her wedding to go with her new minister husband to his first church.

And just as Isabella had to learn the best she could to be a good minister’s wife, Martha had to do the same in the novel. One scene in the book tells what happens when Martha attends a ladies’ prayer meeting soon after she and John arrive at the new church. Here’s how Martha described the meeting to John later that day:

It wasn’t pleasant, John. It was, well, dreadfully stiff; I don’t know any other word that will describe it. Almost everyone was late, yet the meeting did not begin; they sat around solemnly and looked at one another. At last someone ventured to ask Mrs. Jones to lead. She said that she was not prepared, and that she didn’t feel competent to lead a meeting, anyway. Of course that made all the others feel as though they ought not to be ‘competent,’ and one and another refused. Then our next neighbor said she thought the minister’s wife was the proper person to lead; but by that time I was so sort of frightened that it seemed to me I couldn’t lead anything, and I said I did not feel competent, either.

Mrs. Green was finally persuaded to lead; she selected a long hymn and read the whole of it. Think of reading a hymn, John, in a little informal prayer-meeting that is to last only an hour! Then they had a time getting someone to start the tune. Mrs. Jones said she was hoarse, and Mrs. Brown did not know any tune that would go with the words. At last I grew ashamed of myself, and started a tune that I thought everybody in the world knew, but hardly anyone sang, and that frightened me. But they all looked as solemn as though they were at a funeral.”

Poor Martha! She felt she disgraced herself as the new minister’s wife. If only she had been trained in how to lead a prayer meeting!

A pencil and charcoal portrait of Dwight L. Moody, showing a middle-aged man with close-cropped hair and a full beard and mustache.

In her real life, Isabella had to learn the same lesson. Fortunately for her, she had expert advice from a close friend of the Alden family: Reverend Dwight Lyman Moody.

Rev. Moody was a world-renowned minister and evangelist. In 1897 he wrote this bit of advice about prayer meetings, which Isabella published in a Christian magazine she edited:

A banner set in old fashioned type/font that reads "HOW TO HAVE A GOOD PRAYER MEETING by D. L. Moody."

Several important matters must be considered in order to have a good, live prayer meeting. Of course, the all-important thing is the presence of the Spirit of God, without whom no spiritual blessing can come. But there are certain things on the human side that help or hinder success.

First of all, the physical conditions. I do not believe even the angel Gabriel could infuse life into a meeting that is held in a dull, close room. Let there be plenty of fresh air. Make the room bright and cheerful, and there will be little chance of people’s falling asleep.

The meeting should begin and end promptly on time. Announcement should be made on Sunday, and a cordial invitation given to everybody to attend. If the prayer meeting is held in contempt, it is useless to expect a blessing there. I know some churches where they look forward to it more (if anything) than to the Sabbath services.

It is a good plan to allow about a quarter of an hour at the beginning for singing, another quarter for the leader to read Scripture and introduce the subject of the evening, another quarter for prayer and testimony, and the remainder of the hour for special prayer. But I do not suggest this as a permanent division of the time. Avoid falling into ruts of any kind. If some leading minister can attend, let him occupy the whole time; and introduce variety in other ways.

The music should not be neglected. Paul says, “In everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God.” I take it that thanksgiving and praise can best find expression in songs in which all can join. It is therefore important to have an active, earnest leader of the singing, who is able to read the pulse of the meeting, and by striking up suitable and familiar hymns, bridge over a pause, if need be.

A GOOD LEADER.

The success of the meeting depends largely on the leader. If he is full of life and of the Spirit, the audience will catch his enthusiasm: but a cold, listless manner throws a wet blanket over the proceedings.

He should be there ten minutes before the meeting begins, in order to see that everything is in good order, and he should come prepared to lead. If there is one thing that will kill a meeting sooner than another, it is to have the leader stand up and state that he has not come prepared. If a subject has been announced, it is his duty to study it so that he can introduce it intelligently. If he is not limited to any special subject, let him introduce one that appeals to the hearts of the people, and that they can speak upon without special preparation. When I was in charge of a work in Chicago, I used to say, “I am going to take up the Good Shepherd (or some such topic) tonight,” and then got friends to quote texts or make remarks on that subject. Let the leader set an example by being short and to the point in his opening remarks.

Image of a young woman dressed in a style typical of the late 1800s. She wears a black dress with long sleeves and white lace cuffs and collar. Her hair is loosely pulled to the back of her head in a braid that wraps around her head. Her hands are folded together and rest on an open Bible that rests on the table before her.

As at all other services, I believe the best thing to do is to feed the people with Scripture. Why is it we have so much backsliding, so little growth in grace? Because of the lack of food for the soul. If one neglects the Bible, his soul becomes starved and easily stumbles. “As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby.” The more men love the Scriptures, the firmer will be their faith. And if they feed on the Word, it will be easy for them to speak; for out of the abundance of the heart he mouth speaketh.

Like everything else, the plan of announcing a topic beforehand can be abused. The objection is raised that in many meetings they go together, have one or two prayers, and discuss a topic. There is no need to pervert the meeting in this way. Let there be full liberty to all to tell their joys and sorrows, and give their testimony along any line.

A GOOD FOLLOWING.

The success of the meeting must also depend largely on the audience. The leader is not a Goliath, to go forth alone. Of all church services, the prayer meeting is the one specially intended for church-members to take part in, and the subject should be such as to draw them out. The leader should try to bring in fresh voices, even if he has to hunt them up beforehand.

The members should come to the meeting in the spirit of prayer. It ought to be on their hearts from week to week, so that they are thinking about it and praying about it. If a spirit of unity prevails, such as we read of in the case of those early Christians who “all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication,” blessing will surely follow.

Image of a young woman kneeling in prayer in church. She is dressed in clothing typical for the year 1910; she wears a black dress with long sleeves and white cuffs and collar. Her hair is dressed in an ornate style with curls on top of her head and her long hair hanging in tendrils down the back of her head past her shoulders.

I have no sympathy with the excuse that people have not time to attend. Of course there are certain ones whose circumstances or duties keep them away; but with many the excuse is due to sheer carelessness or indifference. Daniel was a busy man. He was set over the princes of a hundred and twenty provinces. Yet he found time to retire to his chamber three times a day to pray and give thanks before his God.

When the meeting is thrown open, friends should be brief and pointed in their remarks. Bible prayers are nearly all short. Christ’s prayers in public were short. When he was alone with God, it was a different thing, and he could spend whole nights in communion. Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the temple is one of the longest recorded, and yet it takes only six or eight minutes in delivery.

“Lord, help me.”
“Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.”
“Lord, save us.”

Such are the prayers that never failed to bring an answer. The prayer that our Saviour left his disciples is a model in its brevity, its recognition of God and desire for the glory of his kingdom, its sense of dependence upon him for daily needs and for deliverance from the guilt and power of sin.

BE DEFINITE.

Beware of vagueness. It is a sure sign that the prayer is heartless and formal. Beware of praying about everything that can possibly be touched upon. Leave something for those who follow to pray about. Beware of falling into ruts. Dr. Talmage says that if we were progressing in our Christian life, old prayers would be as inappropriate for us as the hats and shoes and clothes of ten years ago. Mr. Spurgeon said that some men’s prayers are like a restaurant bill of fare—ditto, ditto, ditto.

I believe in definite prayer. Abraham prayed for Sodom. Moses interceded for the children of Israel. How often our prayers go all around the world, without real, definite asking for anything! And often, when we do ask, we don’t expect anything. Many people would be surprised if God did answer their prayers.

Image of a woman kneeling in church, holding a Bible in her hands. She is dressed in clothing typical for the year 1910. She wears a black bonnet, a dark red dress with long sleeves, and a white knitted shawl around her shoulders.

As it is the members’ prayer meeting, special prayer should be offered on behalf of the church in all its varied activities, the pastor and all in authority. Other subjects for special prayer are the sick and sorrowing, the unconverted, and the services of the coming Sabbath.

Before the meeting is closed, an opportunity might be given for the unconverted (if there are any present) to make a confession or rise for prayer. I have one church in mind where they have conversations right along at the prayer meeting. Some testimony, some personal experience of God’s grace and blessing, will often convince a man where sermon and argument fail.

The greatest need of the church today is more of the presence and power of the Spirit of God. O that Christians were roused to greater earnestness and importunity in prayer! I believe that the greatest revival the church has ever seen would result. God help us, each one, to be faithful in doing our share.

What do you think of Rev. Moody’s advice about prayer meetings?

What other advice would you give about how to lead a prayer meeting?

Have you ever been to a prayer meeting like the one Martha experienced?

Click here to read more about Rev. Moody’s friendship with Isabella’s family.

You can learn more about Isabella’s novel Aunt Hannah and Martha and John by clicking here.

The True Gentleman

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Isabella’s primary purpose in writing her stories and novels was to win souls for Christ. But she also wrote to inspire readers to simply be better people.

Illustration of a young man dressed in the clothes worn about the year 1910. He is standing at a desk near a window. He has one hand in his trouser pocket; with his other hand he holds a book open on the top of the desk.

During Isabella Alden’s lifetime, there was no higher compliment you could pay a man than to call him a “gentleman.” So it’s no surprise that the main male characters in Isabella’s stories—young or old, rich or poor—exhibited many of the characteristics that defined a gentleman.

They had strong moral principles. They were courteous and considerate. They had good manners, a desire to learn and understand the world, and they were willing to help and be kind to others.

For Isabella, a gentleman’s character was closely tied to his Christian beliefs. She illustrated that premise in this scene from her novel, Her Associates Members:

As she walked back and forth thinking her troubled thoughts, she heard footsteps approaching, and was surprised to see Uncle Tommy returning.

“Why, Uncle Tommy,” she said, going to the gate to speak to him; “are you coming back? I thought you had started homeward for the night. Have you seen my charge to her own door already?”

“No, I didn’t see her to the door, ma’am; she met with someone whose company suited her better than mine, and said I need not trouble further, though it would have been no trouble at all, of course.”

“Met someone? Did she meet a friend?”

“Aye, and he turned and walked with her, and seemed glad of the chance, and she likewise, or at least willing; so there was nothing for me to do but turn and leave them.”

“A gentleman was it, Uncle Tommy?”

Illustration of a young man dressed in clothing from about the year 1910. He stands outside with one hand in his trouser pocket and the other holding a Bible. Behind him is a church with a tall steeple.

“Aye, at least that is what he calls himself. I make no doubt there might be two opinions about that.”

 “What is a gentleman?” she asked, more for the purpose of seeming to be friendly with the old man, than because she was interested in his reply.

“Well,” said Uncle Tommy, straightening himself in the moonlight, “there might be different opinions about it; looking on at folks, I’ve no kind of doubt that there are; but if you ask for my views, why, according to my way of thinking, there is only one kind of true gentleman, and that is a man who is keeping to the road He traveled, just as near as he can.”

Not only did Isabella write about gentlemanly behavior, she also shared other authors’ writings that touched on the subject. In one of the magazines she edited, Isabella published this brief essay:

Banner showing a gentleman's top hat and cane with the words "The True Gentleman" printed across the top.
The true gentleman is the man whose conduct proceeds from good will and an acute sense of propriety, and whose self-control is equal to emergencies; 

. . . who does not make the poor man conscious of his poverty, the obscure man of his obscurity, or any man of his inferiority or deformity;
. . . who does not flatter wealth, cringe before power, or boast of his own possessions or achievements;
. . . who speaks with frankness, but always with sincerity and sympathy, and whose deed follows his word;
. . . who thinks of the rights and feelings of others rather than of his own;
. . . who appears well in any company, and who is the same at home what he seems to be abroad;
. . . a man with whom honor is sacred and virtue is safe.

—John Walter Wayland

In today’s world of social media, movies, and television shows that encourage people to behave badly, it’s sometimes difficult to remember there was once a time when honor, honesty and kindness were admired traits. Thankfully, we have Isabella’s stories and novels to remind us of those days.

Do you know someone you would consider a “true gentleman”?

Do you think that being a gentleman has gone out of style?

Isabella and the Interrupted Night

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For more than a quarter of a century, Isabella edited newspapers (like The Pansy), wrote innumerable novels and short stories, taught classes on homemaking and child rearing, served congregations as a pastor’s wife, and designed Sunday school lessons for children. In between all that, she somehow managed to travel extensively.

Sometimes she was called upon to deliver an address at a conference. Other times she was the guest of a ladies’ missionary society or Bible study, where she often read chapters from one of the stories or novels she was working on at the time. (You can read more about that here.)

Newspaper clipping of an article titled "W.C.T.U. Day." Monday, Aug. 22, will be W.C.T.U. day at the Central New York Assembly, Summit Park. The program follows: 10:30 Crusade Psalm, crusade hymn and prayer; music; conference, Department Work, led by county president; Woman and Temperance, Mrs. G. R. Alden (Pansy); 12, noontide prayer; music. Afternoon - Music; The Saloon a National Problem Rev. Stanley B. Roberts; 2:45, music; medal contest; music; report of judges. Mrs T. M. Foster is county president of the W. C. T. U. and Mrs. L. T. Sherrill musical director.
From the Rome, New York “Daily Sentinel,” August 18, 1898.

When she returned home from one of her many trips, her family gathered around her so she could tell them all about the places she went and the people she met. Her niece, Grace Livingston Hill wrote:

“She saw everything, and she knew how to tell, with glowing words, about the days she had been away so that she lived them over again for us. It was almost better than if we had been along, because she knew how to bring out the touch of pathos or beauty or fun, and her characters were all portraits. It listened like a book.”

One time in particular, Isabella returned home with an extraordinary story. Speaking at the same event had been a woman who was active in many of the same efforts that were of interest to Isabella, such as woman’s suffrage, and the temperance movement. Like Isabella, the woman was well known across the country as a writer and as a much-in-demand public speaker. It was this woman who recounted to Isabella an incident that happened to her.

With the woman’s permission (and with a promise to keep the woman’s identity a secret), Isabella wrote a short story based on the woman’s experience.

The premise of the story is this: A woman traveling by train to a speaking engagement notices an older man and younger woman traveling together on the same train. She quickly realizes she had come upon a couple in the middle of an elopement—and that the young would-be bride is having second thoughts!

How Isabella’s friend intervened (and what happened after) were recounted in Isabella’s story. When it was finished, Isabella sent the story off to a Christian newspaper that was pledged to publish a certain number of her stories each year.

To her surprise, the editor wrote back to ask Isabella if she had considered that the story might suggest to young people “evil ways of which they had never read.”

Can you imagine that? The editor actually worried that Isabella’s story about an elopement might have a negative or “evil” influence on the young people who read it!

In the end, Isabella withdrew the story, locked it away, and forgot all about it. Then, in the late 1920s, she came across the old manuscript and decided to expand the story into a novel.

The result was An Interrupted Night, and the story’s lead character of Mrs. Mary Dunlap was based on Isabella’s friend and the unusual events she told Isabella about decades before.

An Associated Press newspaper photo of Isabella in her later years.

By the time she finished writing the book and submitted it to a publisher, Isabella was in frail health. When the publisher asked her to make some edits to her manuscript, Isabella’s niece, Grace Livingston Hill, stepped in to help her “put it into final shape.”

The book was released in the fall of 1929 with a decidedly modern-looking cover:

Book cover illustrated in the art deco style of the 1920s with a highly stylized profile of a woman's face drawn in tan and orange set against a plain black background. Set in orange type at the top the title "An Interrupted Night." The same orange type is at the bottom with the author's name.

And it was received by a decidedly modern audience that took the story’s premise of an eloping couple in stride. Isabella later wrote that she “exploded with laughter” when she thought about how much the world had changed in the years since she first wrote the story.

Now An Interrupted Night is available for twenty-first century readers to enjoy with a brand new cover:

Book cover showing a young woman carrying a suitcase striding purposefully down the boarding platform of a train station while other people enter and exit nearby train cars.

Mary Dunlap is on her way to a speaking engagement when the train on which she travels experiences engine trouble and must make an unexpected stop for the night. While frustrated by the delay, Mrs. Dunlap quickly realizes a couple on the train is in the middle of an elopement—and the would-be bride is having second thoughts! Drawing on God’s strength, Mrs. Dunlap intervenes; but can she convince the young woman to abandon her plan and return home to her mother before it’s too late?

An Interrupted Night is now available from The Pansy Shop, along with novels by Rev. Charles M. Sheldon, Mary McCrae Culter, and other Christian authors in Isabella’s circle of family and friends. Click on the tab in the menu above, or click here to check out The Pansy Shop!

BY THE WAY …

Who do you think was the “real” Mrs. Mary Dunlap? Frances Willard or Emily Huntington Miller Perhaps Harriett Lothrop (who wrote as “Margaret Sidney”)? Leave your guess in the comments below!

Isabella’s Glory

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In her novel Wise and Otherwise, Isabella wrote about a group of people who lived at a boarding house and the influences they had on each other. One of the residents, Mrs. Sayles, invited her dearest friend Dell Bronson to visit and take a room at the same boarding house. Isabella describes their reunion this way:

Mrs. Sayles went about during the rest of that day with very shining eyes, and very happy, expectant face, which was not shaded in the least when on the morrow she had been sitting for half an hour close beside her friend, and was now with her in her dressing-room, waiting while the rich masses of brown hair were being smoothed and braided into shape.

Isabella knew whereof she wrote. Like Dell Bronson, Isabella also had rich masses of brown hair that she wore in a braid, arranged at the back of her head.

A pencil and charcoal drawing of Isabella as a young woman. Her hair is parted in the middle and drawn to the back of her head where it is arranged in a braided coil.
A publicity image of Isabella, drawn from a photo of her when she was about age 30.

Her niece, Grace Livingston Hill, admired Isabella’s hair, and described it this way:

Her eyes were dark and had interesting twinkles in them that children loved; her hair was long and dark and very heavy, dressed in two wide braids that were wound round and round her lovely head in smooth coils, fitting close like a cap.

Black and white photo of Isabella wearing her hair parted in the middle and drawn smoothly back into a braided bun at the back of her head.
Isabella about age 35

But that wasn’t all Grace admired about her aunt’s hair. She wrote:

When [her hair] was unbraided and brushed out, it fell far below her knees and was like a garment folding her about.

Black and white photo of Isabella in profile. Her hair is parted in the middle and smoothed back into a braided bun at the back of her head.
Isabella about age 40

Grace went on to confess:

How I adored that hair and longed to have hair just like it! How I even used in secret to tie an old brown veil about my head and let it fall down my back, and try to see how it would feel to have hair like that. Nobody else in the world looked just as lovely as did she.

Black and white photo of Isabella Alden in profile, showing her hair parted in the middle and combed back into a braided bun at the back of her head.
Isabella, about age 60.

Isabella kept the same simple yet becoming hairstyle throughout her adult life.

Are you surprised to learn how long Isabella’s hair was? What is the longest length you’ve ever grown your hair?

New Free Read: Doctor Dunmore’s Prayers

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If the surname “Dunmore” sounds familiar to you, you’ve probably read Isabella Alden’s novel, Miss Dee Dunmore Bryant.

In that book about the adventures of the Bryant family, Judge Dunmore was a kind and generous man who befriended the Bryant children and helped improve their fortunes.

Isabella must have liked the surname “Dunmore,” because six years earlier, she used the same name in a short story she published in The Pansy magazine. In the short story, the kindly and wise gentleman named Dunmore was a physician who went above and beyond his Hippocratic Oath to heal the heart of a badly injured patient.

“Doctor Dunmore’s Prayers” is this month’s free read.

Book cover of an old-fashioned kitchen from about 1900 with wooden cupboards. In the foreground is a wooden table covered with baskets and plates of fruits, vegetables, and breads. On the floor beneath the table are bags and baskets of potatoes. The book title is "Doctor Dunmore's Prayers." The author name is "Isabella Alden."

When Mr. Greyson is badly injured at work, Dr. Dunmore does all he can to repair the man’s damaged body and orders him to bed. But with no income, the Greyson family is soon in dire straits and desperate for help. What else can the doctor do to help restore the man’s health and faith?

You can read “Doctor Dunmore’s Prayers” for free!

Choose the reading option you like best:

You can read the story on your computer, phone, tablet, Kindle, or other electronic device. Just click here to download your preferred format from BookFunnel.com.

Or you can select BookFunnel’s “email” option to receive an email with a PDF version you can read, print, and share with friends.

New Free Read: Her Own Way

Published on by Isabella Alden5 Comments

In 1908 Isabella wrote a novel called Her Own Way.

Like her novels Interrupted, The Long Road Home, and Wanted, Her Own Way is very much a story for adults. It is also a cautionary tale about the trouble that can come when believers place their trust in another person rather than in God.

Book cover showing the interior of an artist's studio, with a table filled with sketches, paint brushes. On an easel is a portrait of a beautiful young woman wearing a high-neck, long-sleeved gown from about 1908.
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Mrs. Eastman has always been proud of her beautiful, head-strong daughter Carol and the lovely Christian woman she’s become. Although Carol’s willful ways have caused difficulties in the past, Mrs. Eastman has always been able to gently lead her daughter back to the fold of the faithful.

But when Carol makes the acquaintance of the new church choir director, Mrs. Eastman soon finds her influence waning, as Carol begins to fall deeper under the spell of a man capable of betraying them all.

You can read Her Own Way for free!

Choose the reading option you like best:

You can read the story on your computer, phone, tablet, Kindle, or other electronic device. Just click here to download your preferred format from BookFunnel.com

Her Own Way is not at all like the novels Isabella wrote early in her writing career. What did you think of the book? Do you think the story has relevance for today’s readers?

The Domestic Problem

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Isabella Alden believed that young Christian women who must earn a living would—for the most part—be better off doing so by hiring themselves out as domestic helpers in Christian homes, rather than taking jobs in factories or stores.

Illustration of a young woman about 1910 wearing a long-sleeved, floor-length dress over which is an apron. In one hand she holds a canned grocery item. With her other hand she gestures toward a large, ornately-decorated cast-iron stove. Beside her is a kitchen work table holding a jar, a bowl, a bucket, a spoon and glass.

She used that idea as the premise for her short story “Their Providence” (which you can read for free by clicking here).

Isabella believed a Christian home offered a safer living environment for a single young woman; and that she would be protected from the coarse worldly influences she would find if she lived in a boarding house.

Illustration of a young girl from about 1910. She wears her brown hair up in a loose bun with a large black bow. Her floor-length dress is black with a white collar, cuffs, and a white lace-trimmed apron.

She also believed that living with a Christian family would reinforce the beliefs and principles Christian girls grew up with, such as keeping the Sabbath holy, regularly attending church, having daily Bible readings, and engaging in mission work.

Isabella knew the arrangement could be problematic. In her novel Ester Ried’s Namesake she wrote about a head-strong, quick-tempered young heroine who was hired as a live-in domestic helper for a Christian family that often treated her very poorly. But in true “Pansy” fashion, the characters in her novel eventually recognized their shortcomings and, with God’s help, learned to forgive and influence each other for good.

Illustration of a woman about 1900 wearing a high-necked, long-sleeved shirt and a brown skirt, over which is a white apron. In one hand she holds a recipe book; in the other she holds a pan of backed bread. Behind her another woman wearing a servant's cap pours a liquid from a saucepan into bowls placed on a table. Behind them is a large cast-iron stove. On top of the stove is a kettle with steam coming from its spout.

She also shared her idea of young women working as domestic help in some of her speaking engagements and in magazine articles she wrote.

But the concept was not always a welcome one. In 1911 Isabella received a letter from a young woman in Ohio who disagreed with Isabella’s advice.

I have recently read, in a paper or yours, a remark about “lovely Christian homes” where self-respecting girls could earn their living as helpers. I wonder if you really have any idea how these “lovely” people treat their hirelings? I think you had in mind the comfort of your well-to-do friends, rather than the girls whom you advised.

When you talk about girls finding good “homes” I don’t think you stop to consider both sides. What does “home” mean, if not a place where one has entire freedom to come and go, to plan one’s work, and work one’s plans?

I cannot see how any self-respecting person who has always had her own home could live as a hireling in other people’s homes. Could you? My observation has shown me that a condescending manner is the very best that even “lovely Christian people” have for their domestic helpers.

—Ohio.

Isabella had heard such criticisms before, some of which were “kind and sensible” and others “supercilious and snappy.” Here’s how she responded to the letter writer from Ohio:

“Notwithstanding the letter writer’s opinion, I believe I had in mind the comfort of both employer and employed when I urged self-respecting girls who had their living to earn to choose an average Christian home in which to earn it, in preference to factories, shops, and other public places. You, my dear girls, who have written to me, are starting this argument from the wrong platform.

“The foundation question is not, “How shall I secure me a home where I can have entire freedom to come and go, to plan my own work, etc.” but, “Is doing housework in other people’s homes a good and respectable way for a young woman to earn her living, and can she in this way hope to secure the reasonable conveniences and comforts of a home?”

“To this question I reply with an unhesitating Yes.

Illustration of a young woman about 1895. She wears a black dress with a high collar and puffed sleeves, and a white apron. She is pouring liquid from a copper pan into a soup tureen that rests on a kitchen table beside a variety of vegetables.

“The only—or almost the only—work open to women in which careful previous training is not demanded, nor even expected, is domestic service. Here the demand has been so much greater than the supply that absolutely untrained and ignorant help has rushed in and created the conditions that now exist.

“The attitude of the average employer toward her servant is endurance: she is unable to commend her work, she can only tolerate it. She has learned to conduct herself accordingly; and the multitude of decently educated, reasonably well brought up American girls who cannot be artists nor teachers nor stenographers, but must, nevertheless, earn their living, have, because of the above state of things, given this form of work a wide berth and rushed into shops and offices and factories, instead.

Illustration of a young woman from about 1895, wearing a green dress with large puffed sleeves. The skirt is floor length and over the skirt she wears a white apron tied around her waise.

“Now, let us look for a moment at one of the exceptions:

“She is an American girl with a partial high school education. She planned to be a teacher, but something happened. Illness, or sudden reverses, or unexpected demands, have made it necessary for her to become an immediate wage-earner. Times are hard and openings few; as a last resort she resolves upon trying domestic service, with every nerve in her body shrinking from the ordeal, because of what she has heard and seen and fancied.

Illustration of a young woman bending over the railing of a staircase. In one hand she holds a bar of soap. In the other hand she holds a cloth she uses to clean the spindles and post of the staircase.

“The woman who employs her (knowing she lacks previous training or recommendations) does so because she is in straits and must have somebody right away. All she knows about the applicant is that she looks “uppish” and as though she would feel above her work; which is precisely what the girl does feel. She is all ready to have her worst fears confirmed, and they are confirmed. She finds a thousand things to flush her cheeks with indignation.

“She resents the “orders” given out by the hurried and worried mistress who yet is not mistress of herself. She resents the poorly furnished room, the solitary meals at the section table, the eternal use of her given name. These and a dozen other grievances keep her in a constant state of irritation and resentment. She cannot do even her best—and none know better than she that, because of the lack of training, her best is not very good, for she is too much tried to give real heart to her work.

Illustration of woman holding a bottle of furniture polish in one hand. In her other hand she uses a cloth to polish the top of a dining table.

“What wonder that, after a short trial, the exasperated mistress and the equally exasperated maid separate, the one to be more convinced than ever that the word “help” as applied to the kitchen is a misnomer, and the other to write letters to someone to prove the impossibility of self-respecting girls earning their living in domestic service?

“For the sake of my correspondent who thinks I am theorizing and do not understand the situation, I want to explain that I have been a housekeeper for forty-five years; that I have been studying this problem carefully in my own home and the homes of certain of my friends for more than a quarter century; that I have known intimately all sorts of “hired girls,” and have helped a few of them to experiment in all sorts of homes.

“I have had the would-be fine lady who was an intolerable nuisance; I was glad when I saw her depart, and endured with what patience I could the unkind and untrue things she said about me; though I really believe they were true from her standpoint; she had so warped a view of the whole situation that she was incapable of even listening correctly.

Illustration of young woman wearing a white apron over an orange dress, and a white dusting cap with an orange bow over her hair. She holds a large feather duster.

“I have had all grades between, and I have had the real lady who came into my kitchen in appropriate dress and with quiet voice and quiet ways, and submitted to the regulation that obtained—many of which must have been new and trying to her—without the raising of an eyebrow to hint that she had all her life been used to different things.

“She came to me without flourish of trumpets, as an ordinary domestic servant at common wages; and when she left me after a year of invaluable helpfulness, it was as a tried and trusted friend, whom every member of my family not only respected, but enjoyed; and whom, as the years pass, we are glad to count as one held close in the bonds of friendship.

Illustration of smiling young woman wearing an apron and carrying a tray on which are glasses of juice and three plates of desserts.

“Nor was she the only “lady” help I have personally enjoyed. Glancing back over the almost half century, I find that five of them stand out in bold relief; strong friends, faithful friends, my “servants” still, in the same sense that I am theirs; and all of us trying to pattern after Him who said, “I am among you as he that serveth.”

“My correspondent asks if I “could live as a hireling in other people’s houses?” To which I reply, I do not know; I have never had the opportunity of trying myself in this way. It would all depend upon whether I was strong souled and resolute and sweet-spirited enough to brave present conditions and help to make them better.

“Yours for service,
“Pansy.”

What do you think of Isabella’s idea?

Do you think you could ever “live as a hireling in other people’s houses?”

You can read Isabella’s short story “Their Providence” for free by clicking here.

Read Isabella’s novel, Ester Ried’s Namesake by clicking here.

Don’t Miss These Free Reads!

Published on by Isabella Alden1 Comment

September was a big month here on the blog, with plenty of new Free Reads by Isabella Alden!

If you missed any of the Free Read announcements, here’s a recap of all the new short stories and novels that are now available:

Click on any of the links below to go to BookFunnel.com where you can read the stories on your computer, download them to your favorite device, or print and share them with others.

Nell Jenkins

Pansy’s Advice to Readers

Warren McIntyre’s Bride

Poems of Faith from The Pansy

Honor Bound

Miss Abbott’s Share

A Five-Cent Investment

Want to read even more classic Christian fiction? You can click on the “Free Reads” tab in the menu above to find more free stories by other authors. Enjoy!

New Free Read: A Five-Cent Investment

Published on by Isabella Alden2 Comments

In 1893, when Isabella’s books were at the height of their popularity, a newspaper article about her mentioned that if forced to choose one word to describe Isabella’s work, that word would be “Help.”

The writer of the article made a very insightful observation. Typically, the main characters in Isabella’s books were, indeed, helpers. No doubt Isabella made them so as a reflection of her own belief that every effort counts. In her stories, no contribution was too small, and no effort was too little, as long as her characters did their best and made the most of what God had given them.

Today’s free read reflects that theme, when Mrs. Burns (one of the story’s main characters) asks the question, “How can I turn a small donation to help missions into a large and meaningful contribution?”

When Mrs. Burns is given a five-cent budget with which to help the cause of church missions, she can’t believe her ears. Five cents! What could she possibly accomplish with a small, insignificant nickel?

But with God’s help and a little imagination, Mrs. Burns soon discovers that her five-cent investment can accomplish great things.

You can read “A Five-Cent Investment” for free!

Choose the reading option you like best:

You can read this short story on your computer, phone, tablet, Kindle, or other electronic device. Just click here to download your preferred format from BookFunnel.com.

Or you can select BookFunnel’s “My Computer” option to receive an email with a version you can read, print, and share with friends.

Reader Tip: As you read the story, be on the look-out for one of Isabella’s most beloved characters from The Chautauqua Girls series to make a brief “cameo” appearance!

This post is part of our 10-Year Blogiversary Celebration! Join us every weekday in September for another fun drawing, giveaway or free read!